Sailing Serenity

So we’re back in Antigua and Serenity is nicely tucked in on a safe dry dock. We’re busy packing up things, organizing our departure in two weeks and doing BBQs with the locals. Another thing we’re busy with: Writing all those blog posts we never got round to finishing over the past months.

We’ve decided it makes sense to date them back to when we actually visited the places we are writing about, so that the posts end up in a somewhat chronological order. Kristin’s just added her account of our visit to Guadeloupe and I just posted our experience on Mayreau in the Grenadines. So check out all those big gaps in our history, we will be filling them over the next weeks.

 

So we haven’t exactly been very talkative on this blog, lately. That’s for various reasons, such as spottiness of internet and changing of plans keeping us very busy. Speaking of that: We have changed our plan from sailing back to Europe to staying longer and selling the boat here in the Caribbean. So instead of six weeks of offshore sailing on the Atlantic, we opted for more time in the Caribbean.

There was and still is a lot to organize, of course, but we got an equal if not greater lot of lovely snorkeling, diving, beach time and even a dolphin encounter out of it.

There are consequently numerous more tales to tell and we’ll surely get some of them out of our systems in the time between our boat leaving the water in a few days and us flying back home.

Woohoo! Ten minutes ago, 06:22 local time, we sighted land on the Western horizon! We did it, we really did it. Not that we didn’t think we would before setting off, nor that it was particularly difficult – getting out of the Med last autumn was a lot more challenging. But still, it’s been seventeen days.
Now, after some two thousand miles, the last forty seem like child’s play, really. Alao, it’s hard to get too excited at six in the morning with six, three and zero hours of sleep respectively. Time for some coffee, maybe. And some stretching them sealegs.
See you in the anchorage!

It’s less than three days now, we’re almost done with the big crossing.
Thus far, the Atlantic has been a real gentleman, forcing us to adjust our sails maybe once every three days. It’s been a blast… Seriously, we’ve caught seven fish, so many we stopped fishing because hey, you can only eat so much bloody fish. There’s been a lot of reading and daydreaming and daydreaming at night of being able to sleep instead of attending watch and lots of snack food, because hey, you can only cook so much on a stove with the bloody waves and all.
Speaking of waves: gee, we’ve had enough of them, seriously. I want to be able again to step in my pants in the morning without performing a sophisticated ballet piece to prevent falling over. Then again, I’m stepping in bathing pants, so who am I to complain, right?
Next stop: Barbados!
Cheers, Kai & the Serene Peeps

So we’re in the middle of the Atlantic, as our dear stalkers will well know. We had two days of relatively strong wind and had to change course southward a bit, but now we’re in steady trade winds, 15 knots and relatively relaxed waves. The weather forecast also looks promising and we’re glad we started three days later, as the low pressure front ahead of us is dissolving gracefully. The days are passing quite uneventful, plenty of time to read or think or stare at the ocean (a great pastime). But hey, we caught a fish today! Tasty little bugger…
We’re also making good headway. Current estimate for the entire crossing: 17 days. Betting still open.

Hi folks! If you can read this, our new satellite posting setup works. Yay!